Explain What Was Going On In The Movie Or The Book And Illustrate It: 12 Years as a Slave (Essay Sample)

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12 Years a Slave
The 12 Years as a Slave film is a dramatization of a book by the same name where the writer. Solomon Northup illustrates the hardships which he underwent after being sold into slavery at the age of 30. The film shows a free black man who was born free and lived in the north and later falls into the trap of conmen who drug and kidnap him to be sold to slave masters in the South. Northup was the offspring of a freed slave but he was not born into slavery. He was born a free man in New York where he married and had two children. During such a time, he worked first as a laborer but during free hours played violin. After some time, he was invited by some men to play the violin in Washington DC promising him a lucrative job and many benefits. Since he was attracted by the promise of a lucrative job and also some benefits measured(Loren NP).
Northup decided to try his luck and followed the men to Washington DC only to realize the promise was a trap. The unknown men drugged and kidnapped him, selling him to the southern slave masters who wanted slaves to work on the plantations. Northup survived 12 years as a slave in Red River region of Louisiana, surviving as a human property between numbers of different slave masters. Most of the cruelty as a slave he experienced under a southerner known as Edwin Epps who simply enjoyed torturing his slaves for failing to follow simple instructions. The end of his slavery period came in 1853 when he was freed by a number of northerner friends who came to rescue him from his plight. Northup then travelled to New York where he reunited with his family who they had already thought that he was dead after missing for 12 years (Thaggert 335).
The central idea in the book and film is the illustration of the slavery period from the eyes of the former slave. Northup had spent 12 gruels some years trying to escape from slavery but ended up being exchanged and tortured by different slave masters. The move is also an illustration of what thousands of black families underwent after all the non-disabled men and women were sold as prisoners. For instance, Northup's family suffers the horror of presuming that he was dead after going missing for 12 years. Such a family underwent a very hard time trying to come to terms with the loss of the breadwinner in the house, and thus they always wondered how they would survive without him. Northup was also undergoing agony while thinking about what his family was doing in his absence (Smith 365).
The 12 years a slave film and book are regarded as the accurate and verified accounts of the cruelty and torture which the slaves experienced during their time at the south. The pre-civil war south was the most notorious place were trading slaves were legal, and thus traders sought free black people to sell them in the south as slaves to white plantation owners. The book and illustration give all the basic facts on how the slaves were mistreated, the people committing the injustices and the processes used using Northup's storyline. The film is an illustration of the book and the directors tried to make it look and appear real through showing the characters being beaten and mistreated. In the book, Northup spoke with authority and without hiding anything from describing landmarks and even remembering the names of the people abused him. Such an account enables the reader to understand that both the book and the film illustrate the real life that Northup went through as a slave.
During writing his book, the author seems to dare critics to question his story line as he explains that everything in that account was the truth and represented what most people in the south were undergoing through. For instance, in the book, Northup takes a bold step and accuses a slave trader of keeping him captive even though he was brought there by conmen. The mentioning of names in the book show that the story line was based on a true story and helped during a trial of the slave trader after Northup had been released. Since most of the materials in the book are based on a true story, most historians have used his book as a source of information in understanding how the slave trade was organized and how many parties were involved. The book debuted at 160 years and had been used ever since as a source of historical material since the information contained there is accurate and details happenings which occurred in real time (Thaggert 335).
Both the 12 years a slave movie and book serve as a timeless reminder of human slavery or chattel bondage. Even though the book was published many years ago, the dramatization of the film also gives the same feeling like the book in helping a person to understand the origin and development of the current United States of America. The suffering and trauma that the slaves undergo are illustrated through the film whereby Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is kidnapped and tortured as he worked as a slave on the southern plantation. Northup details on the pains which he underwent through as a slave and also the ones he was forced to inflict on others, thus sounding a warning on how slavery affected them during such trying moments. For instance, as a slave, Northup was forced to work under harsh conditions, beaten, and also being abused spirituality, physically and emotionally (Smith 365).
The illustration of the book through the film also brings out something that was reading the book doesn't show, that of the slave masters suffering as well. The pain of slavery was not only felt by the slaves, but the hear experienced it too, as they were emotionally desensitized, morally degraded and also made their lives of preaching water and drinking wine to appear as hypocrisy. For instance, the slave masters used to worship and Northup in his book wonders how they can claim to love God and yet practiced slavery by torturing and humiliating fellow human beings. Through the film and book, Northup seems to warn of the consequences of practicing human slavery since it affects both the slave and the master. The family of the slave master is shown through evil and thus appears lacking integrity, love and justice (Smith 365).
The 12 year a slave is also an illustration of how a human being can be motivated through spirit and the enduring determination of hope. For instance, Northup survives 12 exhausting years working as a slave and during all that period did not give up on his dream of seeing his family ones again. A viewer or reader can see that Northup was aiming to be united with his family again and that was the main reason why he endured the suffering for long periods of time. Solomon Northup experiences hardships from the start through being deceived, kidnapped, abused on the way, taken away from his family and beaten into submission. However, through all such hardships, he never gives up or gets heartbroken and thus keeps pushing his luck until the day that his friends came for him. Even when Northup was living under the cruelty of Edwin Epps, he still endured all the troubles as he knew that...